Denise A. Casado G.
Professor Okrasinski
Com 101-005
18 April 2023
Evil Is on Social Media Too.
Social Media used to be an option, and privilege during the first years but as times change and technology seems to advance faster, it has become more of a requirement over the last decade to join the online world with the educational system and corporate culture including social media as a new tool. Therefore, even if people wouldn't think they'd be missing out on the latest trends on the internet, they'd still have to log in for work or study. There's nothing wrong with renewing and refreshing methods of communication as long as the places where it's required to put these new methods in practice count with effective regulation and monitoring policies to ensure the users are safe, and the media is used accordingly. However, that is unfortunately not the case since Cyberbullying has been present for years and is still an ongoing problem that affects mostly (but is not limited to) young people across the globe every day. This reflects how while social media serves as a tool for connection and communication to some, it might be a nightmare to deal with for this vulnerable part of the public. The consequences of cyberbullying are serious and urgent and for that professional experts around the world have been working on research to develop and propose plans to eradicate cyberbullying for good.
In the article "Cyberbullying and the mental health of Adolescents," authors Faye Grech and Mary Anne Laurie share the incidence and effects of cyberbullying investigated through a sample of 367 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16. According to Grech and Laurie, cyberbullying is an intentional and repeated aggressive act in an electronic context such as social media platforms, text messages, online games, etc. against a person who cannot easily defend oneself. This type of bullying travels faster and targets a much larger audience, although it generally targets individuals with certain characteristics. Some of them tend to be adolescents between 13-17 years old, with a higher number of reports of female victims, LGBTQ+ members, immigrants, and physically disabled people. Cyberbullying can include sending offensive pictures or messages, mocking, spreading false rumors, and excluding someone from a chat group with the purpose of hurting the victim. The authors report that "approximately half of the adolescents experience cyberbullying while more than half report witnessing frequent online bullying with most students failing to report it" (Grech and Laurie 20). Another article titled "Prevalence and Related Risks of Cyberbullying and Its Effects on Adolescents" reported that "A meta-analysis examining the association between peer victimization, cyberbullying, and suicide in children y adolescents indicates that cyberbullying is more intensely related to suicidal ideation than traditional bullying" (Gohal, Gassem, et al, 16,17)
Many people have probably heard about online harassment since unfortunately happens every day but somehow it seems like there's not enough information out there about the impact this problem has on the victims and the perpetrators. The additional evidence presented in Grech's article, which information was collected from the EU Kids Online European study, reflects a correlation between cyberbullying and several psychopathological symptoms among the victims such as depression, phobic anxiety, internalizing and externalizing problems, body image dissatisfaction (leading to eating disorders), interpersonal sensitivity, paranoia, and psychoticism. Grech adds that long-term consequences of cyberbullying also include hyperactivity, conduct issues, low pro-social behaviors, smoking, intoxication, and psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, and "those who have experienced consistent cyberbullying are more likely to engage in criminal behavior later on in life" (Lodge, as cited in Grech and Laurie 22). In addition, ". . . some cyberbullies admit that they themselves were bullied at a particular time", which leads to the conclusion that victims becoming perpetrators is another possible consequence of the misuse of social media. These consequences show that cyberbullying is a problem that should be urgently addressed since young people who are victims of cyberbullying experience mild to severe mental issues that potentially affect every aspect of their lives, putting their futures at stake and, in the worst cases, leading to suicide.
Thanks to the awareness that has been carried out for years and the search for solutions by psychology experts, there are several alternatives that individually or combined could mean the end of online bullying. Davis Nancy and Caryn Schmidt presented the three-tiered model for schools specifically designed for institutions to address any abusive social media behavior. The three-tiered model provides a comprehensive plan that is both inclusive and individualized, depending on the tier.
"Tier 1: Primary prevention includes a school-wide definition of cyberbullying and cyber abuse, and an anti-bullying policy created and used by all students, parents, teachers, administrators, legal consultants, and support staff. School-wide training on cyberbullying and cyber abuse and their effects are included in Tier 1.
Tier 2: Targeted strategies focus on those students who have been identified as at risk for being a cyberbully or cyber victim.
Tier 3: Tertiary prevention programs target students with severe needs, including those students who are perpetual bullies and victims, and those who have threatened violence to peers or teachers and staff" (Shinn, Walker, & Stoner, as cited in Davis & Schmidt (370).
This model promises a decrease in the number of cyberbullying cases since its appropriate application prevents the situations before they arise, takes action when it occurs, and also installs the absolute rejection of this type of malicious behavior.
The second alternative comes from technology. "There are ways to control such cybercrime through artificial intelligence. Studies related to them are being carried out continuously. There's little question that significant areas of artificial intelligence, such as deep learning and machine learning, should be used to monitor and regulate these types of cybercrime. Our study proposes the best algorithm for the automatic detection and control of cybercrime using appropriate artificial intelligence techniques based on a solid literary review, primarily through a deep learning mechanism. It is to be hoped that this study will help control the widespread use of cyberbullying crimes rampant on social media. So, our study aims to identify practical algorithms for controlling cybercrime shared on social media and use them to create a suitable classifier through ensemble technology. " (Shibly, F.H.A., et al. 435)
Works Cited
Grech, Faye, and Mary Anne Lauri. "Cyberbullying and Mental Health of Adolescents." Malta Medical Journal, vol. 34, no. 2, July 2022, pp. 19–30. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=a9h&AN=157036654&site=ehost-live.
Gohal, Gassem, et al. "Prevalence and Related Risks of Cyberbullying and Its Effects on Adolescent." BMC Psychiatry, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 1–10. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04542-0.
Balta, Sabah, et al. "The Mediating Role of Depression in the Relationship Between Body Image Dissatisfaction and Cyberbullying Perpetration." International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, vol. 18, no. 6, Dec. 2020, pp. 1482–92. EBSCOhost.
Davis, Nancy, and Caryn Schmidt. "Cyberbullying and Cyber Abuse Intervention: The Three-Tiered Model for Schools." Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, vol. 11, no. 3–4, July 2016, pp. 366–77. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2016.1238792.
Shibly, F. H. A., et al. "Detection of Cyberbullying in Social Media to Control Users' Mental Health Issues Using Recurrent Neural Network Architectures." Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results, vol. 13, Oct. 2022, pp. 434–41. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.47750/pnr.2022.13.S03.072.
